Tommy Snyder, who always served a side order of shtick with his hot dogs, has sold his perennially popular Cape May hot dog stand, and he and wife Mary will soon hop aboard their 40-foot motor home and head . .. somewhere.

Saturday, May 21, is his last day, when he formally turns over the reins to new owners Bruce and Deena Carlino.

"I'm here Saturday, and then I'm a gone dog,'' he said at his stand this afternoon.

Hot Dog Tommy's is a literal hole in the wall - the walk-up counter is about arms' length - and an amusing anomaly in staid Victorian Cape May.

The hot dogs may not have been anything special - Berks Angus all-beef five to a pound - but no one could resist Snyder's nonstop, nutty chatter and patter.

Nor the goofy hot dog hat he always wore.

"It's free napkin Friday,'' he tells a customer, walking away without a much-needed napkin or two.

Snyder and his wife, Mary, who both grew up in Reading, Pa., have run the stand since 2003. Before that, they ran the Manor House, a Cape May B&B, and Dry Dock, an ice cream stand. Snyder was once a college dean of admissions, and worked in his family's potato chip business.

For the last 16 years, they've lived in a motor home, hitting the road every fall. They worked three years at Disney World and have spent several winters in Georgia (Jimmy Carter is a Sunday school teacher at their church).

But they'd always return to their little hot dog hole-in-the-wall a half block from the beach in time for its customary opening a week before the Memorial Day weekend. Mary, the straight one, always playing Abbott to her husband's Costello.

Last summer, though, the Snyders, each 71, started feeling the effects of being on their feet 12-plus hours a day, and decided to sell. They found a ready buyer in Deena and Bruce Carlino. Deena's brother, Lenny Gagliardi, is one of the owners of Fins restaurant and the Peter Shields Inn, both in Cape May.

"Nothing's changing,'' Bruce Carlino insisted. "The menu is the same, we even have the same employees from last year.''

Actually, there will be a few changes - a veggie dog is now on the menu, and Hot Dog Tommy's will open an hour earlier and close an hour later.